Showing 37–48 of 62 results
This colorful antique Shiwan stoneware food offering would have been placed on a Chinese home or temple altar to augment or in place of a plate of stacked fresh fruit. These offerings are still made honor the family’s ancestors, communicate with deities and bring prosperity, good luck and health to the home.
Shiwan stoneware fruit offerings were especially popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties when the were placed on temple or home altars to communicate and venerate ancestors, augment fresh offerings and bring auspicious blessings of fu to families presenting them. The three peaches interwoven with lotuses are associated with springtime, fertility, and especially a long healthy life for many generations. They are considered propitious gifts for birthdays, especially for the elderly.
This image is a seated Taoist priest or official placed along with ancestor figures and other religious images on a home altar. Wearing long-flowing official’s robes with deep-folds, he ceremonially holds a hu tablet with raised arms and hands under a ritual cloth. Images were frequently damaged or darkened by incense and candle smoke from regular ritualistic offerings and were often repainted or re-lacquered as this was, probably done in the early 20th-century.
This fine carving is likely a Taoist priest dressed in official garments astride a lively horse that was originally place on a home or community clan shrine to protect devotees. In contrast to the erect and calm priest with expressive facial features, the ornately attired horse is active as it turns his head, opens his mouth, and widens his nostrils. The priest’s powers as a guardian figure are symbolized in his hat with a mythical taotie that wards off evil and warns against gluttony and his raised hand in prana mudra that activates vital energy flow to avert evil and bring good fortune.
Taoist priests like this were placed on home altars to bring wishes of fu – a virtuous, prosperous and long to the home in which they were placed. This vibrant figure hold a ritual cup symbolically containing the elixir of life in his left hand. The open back cavity reveals the slip that was placed there during a consecration ceremony by a taoist priest.
Images like this were commissioned by families to honor departed ancestors, and this family seems to have requested an amplified tribute by posing him with characteristics of Guandi, the god of war, or maybe it is Guandi very liberally depicted by a provincial artist. He sits on a high backless chair, hands on knees, one holding a small tael and the other poised to hold a sword, wearing military maille at the chest and knees, also used in depictions of Guandi. The calligraphy on the base is the name Wu (last) Fa Tian (first), the ancestor to whom the statue was dedicated.
This Kitchen God and his Wife is posed as streamlined virtual mirror-images and fashioned with a general quality relying on paint rather than deep carving for details. They sit on backless chairs on a plinth, with simplified gold officials’ robes with long color sashes, and well-carved black and gilt head gear. The wife’s face is smooth, generalized and the male face has a more deeply carved surface and painted highlights.
This somber and serene Taoist priest holds two auspicious symbols: a cup with the Elixir of Longevity and a tael which is a wish for wealth and good fortune. He sits on a high pedestal with five painted characters the first two refer to the mythical “turtle spirit” that symbolize longevity and the end ones the name of the individual and/or family that commissioned this piece. Taoist priests were responsible for protecting people against evil spirits in this life while Buddhist monks were responsible for looking after souls in the next life.
This vibrant carving of a Taoist priest or shaman is in religious attire with double-winged high hat centered with an image of a taotie. Two fingers of hisleft hand are in karana mudra to cast our evil spirits and the tael or silver ingot in his right hand represents a wish for wealth. The closed cavity and the inscription on the back indicate it was consecrated by a Taoist priest.
This Han bronze belt hook is fashioned as a dragon with intense eyes. A button-like extension on its underside affixes to a belt hole, and the hook is positioned horizontally to attach to clothing. Belt hooks were used in life and then buried with the diseased to accompany him on his journey to the afterlife. In very good condition, it has not been cleaned and has normal pitting and surface losses due to its two millennia-old burial in a humid tomb that has heavily oxidized over the years and, therefore, has beautiful verdigris deposits.
Cocoon jars were mingqi made for placement in tombs to comfort the deceased on their journey to and in their afterlife. An elixir of Immortality made from mulberry leaves or their ashes was placed inside for the deceased to drink and transmigrate into the world of the beyond. Ovoid in shape to resemble a silkworm cocoon, ajar rests on a small trumpet-shaped foot and has a narrow neck and a wide lip at its mouth. Painted after firing with vertical bands dividing it into panels, swirling cloud scrolls, and circular “eye” motifs at each end, this beautiful vessel is in excellent condition for its age with expected paint losses, scrapes, and dirt adhesions.
This earthenware brick tile bordered with a deep scalloped frame depicts a vase with a bouquet of propitious flowers: a chrysanthemum and a peony wrapped with an elegant ribbon. Tiles like this were made to decorate the large numbers of buildings created during the prosperous Song dynasty and to adorn tombs. This elegant brick is in good condition for its age with expected chips and cracks, some restoration of background and a re-glued frame break on each side. It has earth adherents from its burial in a tomb.
End of content
End of content
